Ten Things About My Mama
by thenameissnix
Summary: 10 year old, Natalie Karev doesn't remember much about her mother. The only way she was ever gonna find out was through her daddy. Based off of Because of Winn-Dixie.


**This is a one shot in the POV of Jolex's 10 year old daughter. So I was thinking of Because of Winn-Dixie when this came to mind, like but with Jolex instead, so there are some references to the book/movie. I am currently writing chapter 2 of my Jolex story too, so look out for that! Anyway, hope this is good (:**

Daddy never really speaks of mama. Whenever I try to bring her up he does a shy kind of smile, like the kind you do when something is really sad. All I know of mama is that she died when I was two of an illness as daddy calls it. Daddy works at an office of some sort, because he's a kid doctor. Sometimes that work comes home. I see him at his desk hunch over some papers sometimes and he reminds me of a turtle in his shell that's too shy to come out.

One day while he was working at his desk doing what he always does, I came up to him.

"Daddy…" he jumped a little. He sighed.

"Natalie, you scared me there." He just stared at me. "What do you want?"

"Can you tell me about mama?" He looked down, like he was about to cry.

"Nat-"

"I know you said I am too young to understand some of the things, but I thought of an idea." He stared at me like he was considering it. "Since I am ten years old, which means you tell me ten things about her. It doesn't have to be sad things, just good things." He stared at me and got up and picked me up, even though I'm only ten, daddy picks me up like I'm five.

He took me to the couch and sat me next to him and he wiped his face.

"Ten things….ten things…"

"Yes."

"Your mom was funny. She made everyone laughed."

"That's one." He smiled.

"She loved to fake cry. She does it just to get her way, when she was a doctor and she wanted in a surgery she cries and then she usually would get in."

"Like me…" I smiled at him.

"Now I know your secret…" he laughed.

"Daddy, that was only two."

"Three: She was really good at math. Like Einstein good. She could do mental math faster than your Aunt Mer's half-sister was to recite a whole textbook."

"I obviously didn't get that talent." He laughed again.

"Four: she had one of the most beautiful laughs I ever heard. She could be encouraging someone and she laugh and you could tell her a joke and she laugh for ten minutes straight." I smiled at that one.

"Five: She couldn't cook. She burnt everything! She tried making me pancakes once and almost burned the house down."

"You can cook." He laughed.

"I had to cook all the time. Sometimes there were takeout too." He smiled a sad one.

"Six: She loved to help people. It's one of the reasons why she became a doctor. She would fight for one of her patients and friends if she had to." I smiled.

"Seven: She used to live in her car. Your mommy & I didn't have the best childhood. She never knew who her mommy or daddy was."

"Why not," I asked.

"She just never knew them." He scratches his head.

"Eight: She hated that I was not helping her when I started at the job where I work now. I was getting used to the job and she kept calling, but I had to ignore it, because I had patients. She told me the end of the day how she tried to contact me and didn't understand why I had ignored her pages." He was close to crying.

"Nine: She got sick. It hit her fast. One day she was, uh, healthy. Then the next she had to go to the hospital. She was getting the help she needed and she…" He stopped and looked down, this time I saw tears.

"Daddy…"

"It's time for bed baby girl." He got up and I followed him to my room, he tucked me in. He turned around to leave.

"Daddy…" He turned around.

"Yeah?"

"What was the tenth thing?"

"That she loved you. She would brag about you to anyone in earshot. She even bragged about you to Kepner, saying that 'my daughter would destroy your daughter at anything she challenged.'" I stared at him, he smiled at me. He turned back around and turned off my light and closed my door.

I reviewed all ten things daddy had said about mama, and I even wrote them down so I never forget.


End file.
